63 – ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I was a man who frequently experienced madhy (pre-ejaculatory fluid), so I told al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad to ask the Prophet ﷺ about it. He did so, and the Prophet replied, ‘Ablution is required for it.’” Agreed upon, and the wording is that of al-Bukhari (1).

Vocabulary of the hadith
– “rajulan”: the predicate of kāna; “madhdāʾ” is its adjective.
– “madhdāʾ”: with an open mīm, a doubled dotted ḏāl, and a lengthened alif. It is an intensive form indicating frequent discharge of madhy. The word madhy—written with an open mīm and a quiescent dotted ḏāl—is also read with a kasrah on the ḏāl and a shaddah on the yāʾ; its plurals include mudhā, mudhāyāt, and mudhā.
Al-Ṣiḥāḥ notes that al-Azharī said: wadyy, madhy, and manyy are pronounced with a shaddah; Abū ʿUbayd held that manyy is pronounced with a shaddah while the other two are light, and that is the more common view.
Madhy is a thin, viscous, whitish fluid that appears during foreplay and the like; it issues from the urethra and is secreted by the bulbourethral glands.
– “an yasʾal”: meaning “that he ask”; the particle an is masdariyyah—i.e., “I instructed him to ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”
– “fīhi al-wuḍūʾ”: a nominal clause in which “ablution” is the postponed subject and “for it” is the advanced predicate.

Points derived from the hadith

1. The emission of madhy necessitates ablution but does not require a full ritual bath; this is a matter of consensus.
2. One version of the hadith in al-Bukhari (178) reads: “I was too shy to ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,” while Muslim (303) records: “because of Fāṭimah.”